Team India: A bright future beckons

With the 2013 Champions Trophy win, the Men in Blue have laid down a marker for the future

Two years after the 2011 ODI World Cup triumph, MS Dhoni returns with the Champions Trophy in hand, effectively ensuring the slow and painful transition is now complete in the limited-overs format. The victory lays down a firm base on which to build for the 2015 World Cup and beyond.

The Coming of Shikhar Dhawan There is life beyond Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. The troika of top-order batsmen failed in Australia in 2011-12 and opening was fast becoming a problem in every format of the game. Changes were needed, and although they came a tad too late – after England won the Test series in India – they were quite welcome. Shikhar Dhawan has provided an answer to all of India’s top-order question marks, and while he has been a galvanising factor, he is not the only one to put his hand up.

Murali Vijay has been in good form, while Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik and Cheteshwar Pujara could also be options should any one of them slack up. Gambhir’s return is keenly anticipated, and it shows that India now have a proper bench strength of batsmen who can deliver at any number in the order. Add to it the small fact that there are others who have already sewn down their permanent spots and the batting line-up is looking formidable once again.

Virat Kohli is among the best limited-overs batsman today and MS Dhoni is arguably the best finisher in the history of the game. Suresh Raina is the joker in the pack and performs various roles at different times. They may not bring in the flair and legacy of the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly yet, but these young guns have enough spunk to carry their weight into the future.

Jadeja Grows Up For quite a while, this young man had been at the receiving end of many jokes. Social media was flooded with comic takes on everything he was associated with; even his team-mates found it too tempting to resist. While intra-team banter is fine, it takes a lot to change public opinion. And boy has he gone ahead and done it!

This has been one of the best turnarounds from an individual point of view. Jadeja has gone from he-doesn’t-belong-here to a dependable-number-seven option in all formats. His growth in limited-overs play has been astonishing and it has fuelled his desire in the longer format as well. Moreover it is astonishing that he has come good abroad too.

This bodes well for Indian bowling as a whole, as a five-bowler attack is imperative in foreign conditions. The experience is missing in this attack, but enough opportunities to these youngsters can make up for it. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav have proved that they weren’t out of place in England. Ashwin is the go-to spinner and Jadeja the X-factor. Ishant Sharma has been patchy but that is one bowler, whose replacement can be found. All in all, the Indian bowling isn’t as weak as it looks on paper.

Fielding Sensation This was India’s best ever performance in the field ever since they started playing ODI cricket in the seventies, period. There is no denying it. In the past there have been Indian teams with five or six players that needed to be hidden. Only a handful would dive as if their life depended on it. Not anymore, for Ishant, Umesh, Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar, all of them bowlers have provided a huge boost to the fielding.

And this has enabled Dhoni to place his best fielders in the inner circle. From there, the likes of Kohli, Rohit, Karthik, Raina and Jadeja have put immense pressure on the batting sides. It is a master-class in more ways than one and perhaps the single biggest factor in India’s climb to the winners’ podium.

Dhoni’s Leadership Surely, some credit goes to Duncan Fletcher and his support staff to affect a turn-around in Indian fortunes. They have worked very hard at trying to change the work ethics of the youngsters and allow them to express themselves in the field. But the brunt of the onus lies on one set of shoulder alone: that of skipper Dhoni.

Post the 2011 World Cup, he looked worn out from too much cricket. A team in transition and the legends bidding goodbye did not augur well for him. But he fought back, understanding well the limitations of his new players, yet backing them to the hilt. He may have kept quiet in the pre-tournament press conferences, but he talked out loud in the dressing room. And that is where it counted, paving the way for India’s success and indeed for their future.

(Chetan Narula is the author of Skipper: A Definitive Account of India’s Greatest Captains.)